William Robert de la Cour Shirley (13 October 1900–23 April 1970) was an English cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. A right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

 bowler, he played first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 between 1922 and 1925, primarily for Hampshire

Hampshire County Cricket Club

Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...

. He also played first-class cricket for Cambridge University

Cambridge University Cricket Club

Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...

 and the Free Foresters

Free Foresters Cricket Club

Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' club, having no home ground....

 in addition to representing the Nigeria national cricket team.

Biography

Born in Marylebone

Marylebone

Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....

 in 1900, William Shirley was educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Cambridge University

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, playing cricket for both institutions. He made his first-class debut in 1922, playing for Free Foresters against Cambridge University. He made his debut for Hampshire in a County Championship

County Championship

The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...

 match against Warwickshire

Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...

, a match that was described by Wisden

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...

 as "extraordinary". In the match, Hampshire were bowled out for just 15 in their first innings and were forced to follow on 203 runs

Run (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...

 behind. They then scored 521 and won the match by 155 runs.

He played ten more County Championship matches for Hampshire that season

1922 English cricket season

The 1922 English cricket season saw Yorkshire recover the County Championship and begin a run of four successive titles.- Honours :*County Championship - Yorkshire*Minor Counties Championship - Buckinghamshire...

, and played a further 19 the next season

1923 English cricket season

-Honours:*County Championship - Yorkshire*Minor Counties Championship - Buckinghamshire*Wisden - Arthur Gilligan, Roy Kilner, George Macaulay, Cecil Parkin, Maurice Tate-External sources:*...

. The 1924 season

1924 English cricket season

Yorkshire secured a hat-trick of titles in the 1924 English cricket season, while England, in its first home series since 1921, proved too strong for South Africa.-Honours:*County Championship - Yorkshire*Minor Counties Championship - Berkshire...

 started with him playing for Cambridge University against various county sides

County cricket

County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...

, the MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

, the Army

British Army cricket team

The Army cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Army. The team played a number of first-class matches between 1912 and 1939, although a combined "Army and Navy" side had played two games against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team in 1910 and 1911...

, the Free Foresters and South Africa. He gained his blue when he played against Oxford University

Oxford University Cricket Club

Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...

 at Lord's

Lord's Cricket Ground

Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...

 in July. In addition to his matches for the university, he also played 14 County Championship matches for Hampshire.

His last season in first-class cricket was in 1925, when he played four County Championship matches for Hampshire in May, the last coming against Lancashire

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

. This was not the end of his cricket career though, as he played five times for Nigeria against the Gold Coast whilst living there between 1928 and 1938. He died in Bognor Regis

Bognor Regis

Bognor Regis is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, on the south coast of England. It is south-south-west of London, west of Brighton, and south-east of the city of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Littlehampton east-north-east and Selsey to the...

 in 1970, aged 69.

Cricket statistics

In his 62 first-class matches, Shirley scored 1458 runs at an average of 17.78 with a top score of 90 made for Hampshire against Glamorgan

Glamorgan County Cricket Club

Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...

 in his first season. He took 81 wickets at an average

Bowling average

Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...

of 23.60, with best innings bowling figures of 4/10 for Cambridge University against Lancashire in 1924.

In his five matches for Nigeria against the Gold Coast, he scored 350 runs at an average of 43.75 and took 21 wickets at an average of 15.00.